With work progressing at full speed, around 71 percent of Istanbul's third airport has been completed, an article in the Habertürk daily has reported.
The report found that work on the airport's interior and apron area, installations of passenger bridges, exterior glass and the roof of the main terminal building are currently ongoing. Meanwhile, progress has been made on the construction of the 3,750-meter-long, 60-meter-wide second runway, which will enable the airport to easily accommodate some of the world's largest aircraft, including the Airbus A-380 and Boeing 747. Funda Ocak, head of the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ), recently visited the airport and examined the construction.
The DHMİ later confirmed on Twitter that the construction of the airport is 71 percent completed thanks to an outstanding effort put in by the technical staff and construction workers.
Meanwhile, Istanbul Grand Airport (IGA) CEO Yusuf Akçayoğlu said that four air bridges out of 143 have already been installed. He said they are fully concentrated on work to make sure that the airport opens on Oct. 29, 2018, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced it would.
Akçayoğlu said that the new airport, one of the biggest construction projects in Turkey's history, will easily accommodate even the largest of aircraft.
"The Airbus A-380, currently the world's largest passenger aircraft, requires three air bridges during boarding. This airport will be able to serve four A-380s at the same time. "There is no other airport in Turkey that can do so. The first runway along with the taxiway and the emergency track has already been completed. Around 75 to 80 percent of the excavation work for the second runway has also been done," Akçayoğlu said. When the first phase of construction is completed in 2018, it will have the world's largest terminal under one roof, with a gross floor area of around 1 million square meters and will see an estimated 90 million passengers a year.
Once fully operational, the airport will see more than 200 million passengers annually. With more than 250 airlines flying to more than 350 destinations, it is set to become one of the largest and busiest transportation hubs in the world.
